Dandelion divide

Snaggle-toothed scourge or edible, golden-tipped beauty? It depends on whom you ask

Dandelions speckle Arkansas in spring and after summer heat is over. Meantime, these hot days are for planning how to deal with the weeds the next time they pop up. Gardeners and lawn-keepers dig, spray and generally stomp on dandelions. But people, like bees, used to welcome these wild plants — not only to eat, but also as tokens of sunshine and magic.
Dandelions speckle Arkansas in spring and after summer heat is over. Meantime, these hot days are for planning how to deal with the weeds the next time they pop up. Gardeners and lawn-keepers dig, spray and generally stomp on dandelions. But people, like bees, used to welcome these wild plants — not only to eat, but also as tokens of sunshine and magic.

Dandelions are what people make of them.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Old-fashioned dandelion digging calls for getting down and dirty to use a garden trowel or hand spade. Grandma’s butter knife saw plenty of action, too, in the war on dandelions. And it’s possible to pinch a dandelion out of the ground, just not very effective. The weeds not only come back, but sometimes come back stronger than before.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Dandelion flowers look like miniature suns, and writer Ray Bradbury likened dandelion wine to bottled sunshine. But sunny blooms like these are more common in spring, fall and winter than in the withering heat of summer in Arkansas.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Dandelions have dark green, raggedy tooth-edged leaves that crowd out pretty grass. But young and tender leaves can be the makings of a salad, and tough leaves can be boiled down to a mess with bacon. Dandelion recipes call strictly for plants that haven’t been sprayed with weed killer.

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Democrat-Gazette file photo

Dandelion pullers similar to this one are available in a variety of brands, looks and prices, around $15-$30. The design includes some sort of digging device on the end of a pole for use without having to bend down. Weed pullers tend to have aggressive names (Weasel, Weed Zinger, Weed Spinner, Triple Claw), but the opponent is a toughie, too. Dandelions can sink roots 3 feet deep and more.

Some people make wine, and some make faces at the annual emergence of these bright dots of sunny yellow that speckle the state's roadsides and spatter even the best-kept lawns.

History looks back on dandelions as welcomed and useful plants. But now, these spiky-leafed squatters officially rank as weeds: unwanted, hard to make go away.

They are weeds as sure as ragweed and pigweed are weeds, according to the National Gardening Association. And weeds as certain as chickweed and cudweed, as classified by the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

Dandelions are viewed as weeds, too, at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs. But garden manager Minnie Shelor adds that, "I have seen dandelions grown as ornamental plants in parks in St. Petersburg, Russia" for "color in the cold, harsh climate."

Arkansas' native dandelions bloom mostly in the spring. They lie low in the state's hot months of summer; like, what doesn't? But they linger and lurk here and there in the shade, never really gone, always ready to come back.

"The plant is perennial and persists all year long," says Gerald Klingaman, director of operations at Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville. "Some don't mind the look of the weed, but the average golfer would be put off by it."

Those who don't mind include Angie Sunderman, sales and design associate at Botanica Gardens nursery in Little Rock. She doesn't sell dandelions, but if she happens to spot a dandelion in the lawn, "I leave it."

Dandelions hold the ground and "it's a flower, and I like all those little lawn weeds," she says, "the short flowering ones."

LOWER THE BOOM

But Scott Kuhn is out to lower the bloom on dandelions as superintendent of Mystic Creek Golf Community in El Dorado, and at home besides.

Except for dandelions in natural areas where they belong, "I treat them with 2,4-D," he says. The broadleaf herbicide is a favorite among lawn-keepers. "A nice, clean stand of uniform turf" is what he likes to see.

Douglas Karcher, professor of horticulture at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, splits the difference. He values dandelions as generally harmless and "beneficial to pollinating insects," but understands the appeal of a nice, dandelion-free lawn.

"Personally, I pull dandelions from my front yard," he says, "but let them go in the backyard."

Dandelions aren't much to see in the wilting heat of summer. But fall could be a different story. And winter is when dandelions rest up to spread butter and sunshine all over the state.

Now is the time to look forward, or to brace for it, or at least to know how Arkansas came up smelling like roses but looking like dandelions.

TO WEED, OR NOT TO WEED

Dandelions go way back. Starting probably in Eurasia, the flowers dotted their way through Europe.

The French called them dent de lion. The leaves have zig-zag edges that looked to the French eye like a lion's teeth. Allez comprendre, that is: Go figure.

"Golden lads and girls all must/As chimney sweepers, come to dust," as Shakespeare wrote in Cymbeline around 1600. One way to read the line is that "golden lads" meant dandelion flowers, and "chimney sweepers" were dandelion heads gone to seed, resembling a chimney-cleaner's broom.

But Shakespeare did not write that dandelions made Hamlet melancholy, nor that the squinty prince brooded over dandelions spoiling the looks of Denmark.

Back then, people actually valued dandelions as good to eat, even worth planting in places that didn't have any. British colonists grew dandelions to make all sorts of nostrums and potions to cure aches and indigestions.

Today, just the opposite: Homeowners fight dandelions to the death with an arsenal of garden-supply sprays and weed-pulling weaponry. Latest to the fray is the Hammacher Schlemmer mail-order gadget company's $250 "Weed Killing Steamer" that claims to wilt the daylights out of dandelions with a blast of "super-heated 300-degree steam."

What changed to make people hate dandelions was a 16th-century invention, the lawn. Elegant lawns graced the richest estates in England, showing at a green glance who made the cut.

Common people had no use for pretty grass: Grass was for grazing livestock. Only the elite could afford to care about perfect lawn-keeping.

And here, m'lord -- see, m'lady, in the midst of this smooth green, aristocratic perfection. What's this awful splotch of yellow?

CUT ON THE DOTTED LAWN

Less wealthy homeowners took up lawn care thanks to another invention, according to The Lawn Institute, an Illinois-based promoter of turfgrass at thelawninstitute.org.

The mechanical lawn mower took the place of sheep, of hand shears and scythes and groundskeepers. Technology gave the job to one guy with a mower to push.

"By 1890, mass production of mechanical mowers made them available to the public at an affordable price," according to the institute's research on lawn history. And by the end of World War II, America's homecoming GIs were moving their families to suburban houses that came with newly-planted lawns.

The lawn took root as the most trimly mown, most fertilized and fussed-over emblem of the American dream -- a dream of lush grass, greener than the Joneses'.

Such a lawn could not abide dandelions pouncing on the zoysia, cramping the St. Augustine, making fun of the Bermuda, and the fescue needs rescue.

DANDY DANDER

When people declared war on dandelions, they picked a tough adversary.

So tough, picking doesn't do much good. The Chinese name for dandelion is "nail in the earth" because of the little plant's extraordinarily long root, commonly 3 feet and sometimes 6 feet deep in the ground. Pluck out just the flower, it comes right back.

The dug-in dandelion calls for a fight. These are the basic strategies:

• Yank 'em! The best time to give weed-pulling a try is when the soil is wet, according to the National Gardening Association. Wet dirt makes the root easier to pull out.

"Think of the main stem as the root's handle," this advice goes, "and grasp it as close to the soil line as you can."

Tug! Got it? No?

Chances are the dandelion is going to snap off, not pull out. In that case, the invader needs to be pried loose.

A dandelion weeder is the specific tool for this job -- a gadget that looks something like a screwdriver with a fork on the end. A plain kitchen fork might do as well. Jab under the weed, pry it up with a twist, and on to the next offender.

Weed-pulling is down and dirty work, so the garden association recommends waterproof garden gloves, "and it's good to have a nice sitting pad, too."

• Stab 'em! Garden stores arise with the alternative to hunker-down weeding. A stand-up weeder is basically the fork on the end of a pole to eliminate bending and squatting to weed level. Some of these gizmos have wicked-looking grippers and prongs to get the best of weeds.

The Fiskars Uproot Weed Remover, for example, boasts serrated claws (about $30), and the Garden Weasel Weed Popper ($25) claims "step-n-twist" technology.

• Block 'em! Dandelions are bullies that crowd out weak grass. They blemish the lawn, these meanies. And they change the way the ball bounces, a sports and safety concern. But strong grass is like a lineman they can't get past.

"I don't get many dandelions in my lawn," horticulturist Karcher says, "because the dense turf crowds out prospective dandelion seedlings. My best advice regarding weed control to any homeowner is to establish the proper turf species to manage, and then use sound mowing and fertilization practices to produce a dense turf."

• Slip 'em a Mickey! "There are two basic types of herbicide that can be used on dandelions," according to the Gardening Know-How website at gardeningknowhow.com.

A broadleaf herbicide targets only weeds, such as dandelions, not grass. A nonselective herbicide kills every kind of plant it can -- weeds and grass, watch out.

The broadleaf stuff is "good for killing dandelions in lawns," the garden site advises. Nonspecific herbicide is "effective for spot dandelion removal, such as killing dandelions in flower beds and in walkways."

A different kind of lawn treatment is called a pre-emergent, applied in late winter to keep dandelion seeds from germinating. But not much works as well or at all once the bright yellow flowers come out.

No sirree, at that point, you've got dandelions.

HomeStyle on 07/23/2016

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